The FIFA World Cup attracts millions of global viewers who watch the action unfold on the pitch. More than a sporting spectacle, it reflects a broader shift in how people are choosing to travel. From blockbuster sports to headline stadium concerts, experience-led travel is reshaping tourism, with Trip.com Group’s “Momentum 2025: Travel’s Next Big Trends” report finding that 66% of APAC travellers plan trips around large events.
The World Cup is a testament to this phenomenon, surpassing 4.6 million spectators during the group stage, making it the highest-attended in FIFA history. In Singapore, this trend is equally evident as sporting events continue to draw fans to sports bars, restaurants, and public venues, while live entertainment reinforces the country’s position as a regional destination for in-person experiences.
Yet behind every sold-out stadium and no-vacancy hotel lies a story that rarely makes headlines but is vital for success: An invisible network of communications, security systems, operational command centres, and emergency response capabilities works continuously behind the scenes to help keep visitors, fans, and frontline workers safe throughout the event experience.
Singapore may be a tiny island nation, but it has ambitions as a destination for tourism, entertainment, business, and government events. According to the Singapore Tourism Board, Singapore welcomed 16.9 million visitors in 2025, with tourism receipts reaching a record SG$23.9 billion in the first three quarters alone. It is targeting 17 million to 18 million visitors in 2026 as it advances its Tourism 2040 agenda. Major events, including Formula 1 and concerts by performers such as Lady Gaga and BTS, are central to that strategy. According to Singapore GP, F1 alone attracted over 300,000 spectators in 2025. But attracting visitors is only half the challenge. Ensuring they enjoy these experiences safely and without disruption is just as important as bringing them here.
The growing complexity of major events
Modern events like Formula 1 weekends or stadium concerts ripple across entire cities, affecting transport hubs, hotels, and retail districts. This scale requires safety to be a citywide effort, with agencies and security providers coordinating to maintain visitor safety and minimise disruption.
Singapore has prioritised this since the inaugural Grand Prix in 2008, relying on a TETRA communications network. While the technology has evolved since, the underlying principle remains unchanged: Successful events depend on resilient communications and effective collaboration.
Event experiences depend on infrastructure we never see
As Singapore attracts more visitors, the challenge extends beyond the venue to transport networks and other public spaces.
Communication networks, command centre software, and video security, including body cameras and CCTV, can form a shared operational picture, enabling responders, transport providers, and event organisers to coordinate their tasks and deliver events without disruption.
Yet passing the major-events test requires more than technology; it depends on people, systems, and a continuous cycle of training and improvement based on lessons learned.
AI as a critical layer of modern infrastructure
As major events and operational environments become more complex and dynamic, the conversation is shifting from responding to incidents to anticipating them before they occur. This is one area where AI is being applied to public safety and security infrastructure.
Increasingly, AI is an important component within this ecosystem. Beyond automating tasks, AI can strengthen mission-critical infrastructure by helping operators and emergency services detect unusual activity and potential threats in real time, surfacing vital information faster for earlier intervention and better-informed decision-making.
AI can also augment human judgement. For instance, when AI analytics are applied to masses of video footage, they can detect dangerous situations like overcrowding and alert control rooms in real time. Security teams and first responders can intervene quickly and safely redirect crowds while maintaining constant oversight and open lines of communication with control rooms. When AI is embedded within the security ecosystem, it helps resource-constrained workers surface critical data, streamline workflows, and identify site-specific tasks that require fast and decisive responses.
From incident response to future infrastructure
Beyond the opportunity at venues, AI capabilities will continue to mature and become deeply connected within cities, correlating insights across transport hubs, public spaces, and event precincts to create a more holistic understanding of how people move and where potential risks and opportunities lie. For Singapore, the shift from reactive response to proactive preparedness could support the development of future public safety infrastructure, especially as the nation’s ambition to be a destination for tourism and entertainment grows.
Visitors will remember the concert, the race, or the match, but the infrastructure they never see helps support every experience they enjoy.
